every day's like an open door

Menu

Yasmine and the Jasmines

First of all HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!!!! I have learned on my mission that creativity is the greatest source of joy and that parenting is the greatest act of creativity, so mothers are kind of the whole point of it all. My mom especially. I don’t even know where to begin with how great she is. Something that my mom taught me that I have always treasured is the role of work. When we talk about work there are a few meanings. Working hard can be taken in the direction of putting worldly pursuits first at the expense of other, more important things, but my mom taught me by example that our hardest and best work should go into what matters most: our art and creativity, our families, that which brings us and others joy. This has had such an impact on my missionary service. Being wholeheartedly dedicated to worthwhile work is a wonderful feeling.

Being able to see the beautiful faces of my family was such a treasure. Our other Mother’s Day festivities included singing “I Often Go Walking” with the young women in sacrament meeting and bringing roses to all of our investigators. So fun.

We are experiencing a time of Big Miracles here in the field. Here are four:

1: First, a temporal miracle. It was sprinkling a little but nothing too bad. We walked past a door and the Spirit said, “Go knock on that door.” So I said, “Let’s go knock on that door.” We did and the lady who answered was of the Jehovah’s Witness faith and was not really interested in learning more but she was very very nice and we loved getting to know her. As we talked to her, a sudden downpour began. She said, “I’m about to have a yard sale and get rid of an extra umbrella. Let me give it to you! I’ve been out preaching and I know how hard it can be.” So nice!!! We got to stay a little dry. The Lord knows when it’s going to start pouring and He knows who has an extra umbrella and He will tell us.

2: On Saturday we had an appointment scheduled with some investigators and a member was planning on coming to teach with us. Our appointment cancelled but she decided to just come out and do whatever missionary things we were doing. We were just walking/driving around to different potential investigators all day. We were driving past a corner and Sister Anderson said, “Pull over. We need to talk to them.” So we did! We started talking to a couple who told us that sometimes the Mormons would stop by. I asked them their names and once they told me the veil was lifted and I remembered that I had been to their house once! So now we know that we should go back ASAP. That was some good clear direction. This wonderful member stayed with us for six hours and took us to dinner and she just loved every minute of it because she is a queen. It was so fun to introduce someone to the magic of missionary living and watch her get used to talking to strangers about Jesus.

3: Last week during our long weekly planning meeting that we have as a companionship, Sister Anderson was looking through the contact information for former investigators who we had stopped teaching for one reason or another. She found the name of Jasmine Fernando (last name has been changed because idk) and said, “We should definitely try again with Jasmine Fernando.” and I said, “Sounds great! Let’s do it!” and we wrote it down in our planners. The night before during our short nightly planning meeting, the Spirit had suggested to me that, despite the foreboding-looking forecast, we should walk to one of our appointments. So we did. As we were strolling through the rain after weekly planning, Sister Anderson said, “Wait. We need to knock on that door.” So we knocked and knocked and finally a young woman came around the side of the house. She introduced herself as Jasmine and she seemed to recognize who we were and said, “Yeah, some other sisters from the church used to come by and I was reading the Book of Mormon, but then I kind of got busy and we lost touch with each other.” Sister Anderson and I kind of looked at each other and asked what her last name was. She said, “Fernando” and we tried to be normal but secretly fistbumped when we were around the corner. When we came back, we discovered that Jasmine had a twin sister Yasmine, a stepsister Jasmine, and two friends name Jasmine and Jazmine. One of the friends was not really interested but the other Jasmines were! So we teach four Jasmines at once. It gets a little confusing. They’re amazing though, they have such a sincere desire to change their lives through the Atonement.

Finally, some funny times:

1: We knocked on someone’s door who had been interested and after a long time her husband peeked his head around the door and said, “Now I’m just settin here in my underwear so can y’all come back another time?” yes… yes we can.

2: We were praying with a lady we were visiting and her son came in the door, talking loudly on the phone. He got the message and got reverent but after he apologized and shook our hands. He said, “Normally I’m a hugger, but I’m all sweaty right now.” Kind of a tender mercy, really.

Share this:

Like this:

Related

Post navigation

One thought on “Yasmine and the Jasmines”

IDear Ingrid, First of all I hope you got my last letter by snail mail. You are in our thoughts and prayers much more often than you might think ~ even daily. We are so proud of our first family missionary. I somehow got behind reading your blog, but am now caught up. Just love every word you write. I especially love to see the words “Winchester” and “Front Royal.” They bring back such sweet memories. What an amazing and effective missionary you are,Ingrid. Love is what it is all about and you have that in abundance. We will keep in touch for sure. Much love, Grandma W and Grandpa N.

Write me!

About Sister Asplund

Utah native serving in the Maryland Baltimore mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Graduate of Bryn Mawr College in art history. Activist, doula, and beekeeper. Lover of lipstick and the German language.

Search

“The practice of love offers no place of safety. We risk loss, hurt, pain. We risk being acted upon by forces outside our control.”
- bell hooks

Meta

"And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."
Doctrine and Covenants 84:88